The NAF Championship 2014 1st Prize

[spubbbba]

I've completed the first batch of linemen. I did end up going with a pretty standard high elf colour scheme, but I do prefer it to the test models I did.

I have actually finished the other 4 linemen but still need to take pics of them.

[Podfrey]

The team models look absolutely great, but there's something about the brown gloves that just doesn't work for me (but I can't place my finger on exactly what - only that they don't look right)

[spubbbba]

I have made a lot of progress with the High Elves, I find once I get the colour scheme sorted it is much easier to focus on them and so have completed a small batch each week.



The 4 other linemen are very similar to the others I have already done, one of them uses a body from the lion chariot but with the legs, arms, head and colour scheme being the same he still matches the rest of them.



I decided to go with white pelts for the catchers as I associate yellow lion skins with the GW models and their colour scheme that was ruined by having too much variation in it. I did give them either blonde or light brown hair so there is some yellow on the models but the differences in armour and accessories between the 4 positions make them easy to differentiate. I didn’t want to harm the team theme by unnecessarily adding extra colours for the sake of it.



I have always seen throwers as being the closest to linemen, mainly due to them usually having the same stats but adding P access along with a passing skill or 2 and possibly sure hands. I had considered making the feather designs on their helms blue and yellow stripes along with the rest of their uniforms, but with the extra gold on the helms thought there was too little white. Plus this makes them stand out even more from the linos and I think it is useful with their heads and poses being the only modelled difference that the catchers and blitzers both have different helmets, arms, torsos and legs in the case of the blitzers.

For the base I am thinking of going with something that will be very simple, green grass with the NAF logo on it, in a similar style to what i did for the Khemri team. Some of the players have legs that are standing on rubble with skulls so I may add some bits of debris to the bases. Whilst a pristine pitch would be in keeping with them being snooty elves, the rubble did help the thrower and Soaren have more interesting poses. And even the sissiest elfball match would get some debris, if even just thrown from the crowd in disgust at the lack of violence.

The traditional NAF colours of Black, Red and White would clash a bit with my team so I am considering repainting them in my team colours. I’ve have done a few quick test schemes below, though on reflection the last should have a border around the yellow top part as well as having it round the NAF letters. Another option is to split the stripes from the top so they do not have to be the same colour. I like the blue and yellow stripes best.


Like with the Khemri team I will stick a grass sheet to a foam board and paint the design onto it along with pitch markings, then cut out disks to stick to the bases.

[spubbbba]

The blitzers gave me the most pause as they don’t have scale mail skirts or any cloth on them. I had considered making the dragon parts red or green but this would have made them too different from the rest of the team. The current GW fantasy Dragon princes have blue dragon armour and I have always seen blue or white being the colour of High Elf dragons. I have painted some of the scales yellow and the extras gold to better balance out all the blue and silver. The catchers having more white, the throwers more gold and the blitzers more blue than the linemen isn’t an issue since they all have the silver, gold, yellow and blue colour scheme with the dark brown gloves and boots.





The last model is Soaren, as with all my other teams I prefer the stars to fit the theme/colour scheme but also stand out. In some cases such as Morg I might want the star to be more neutral, thus able to play for a large number of teams. But Soaren is very much a high elf thrower and this team is using very standard High Elf colours so I won’t want to diverge from them too much. My preferred method for stars is to either using the same colours but switch them round or add more gold and/or elaborate painted detail. In this case he already has more elaborate phoenix style armour than the 2 normal throwers so by painting these parts gold and the extra “wings” blue and yellow then he will stand out. As a bonus he can be used as a normal thrower and team captain if desired.



I really like having the stripes be blue and yellow since that matches the team strip. So I have done a couple more designs, both using the blue and yellow stripes.

[spubbbba]

The team is finished, complete with display base. The last 2 teams I did for the NAF were pretty unique and rather involved conversions, this team is more generic but also closer to the existing GW style. The good thing with this is that they are clearly high elves and it is easy to tell each position apart.

I settled on making the NAF logo mostly blue as I wanted some yellow and white but they were too similar when next to each other. I painted the football brown as it matched the gloves/boots of the team.

Here's a pic of the base before it was chopped up.



I used the same basing technique as with the khemri, cutting disks out of the grass mat and then glueing them to the bases. I did cut holes in these disks to fit the player’s feet so there would be a straight plastic to plastic bond. 1 pence pieces have been stuck to the bottom of the bases to add weight and so pinning was difficult without drilling through the coins and that is a lot of hard work with only a pin vice.

And here is the team all done on the display base.

[DeeTee]

Absolutely awesome from start to finish. Inspirational.

[Joemanji]

Cor blimey.

[HairyPete77]

Love, love, love these. Fantastic job.

[Aino]

The end result looks superb!
Good job!

W

[Olaf the Stout]

How did you do that NAF base?

[spubbbba]

How did you do that NAF base?

I printed out the logo the right size and used it as a guide when I painted it by hand onto the grass sheet. I had to tweak it a bit as some of the spikes were a bit off to start but it is simple enough to paint over.

[Olaf the Stout]

Looks really good. Just regular acrylic paint like you would use on miniatures?

How did you get the lines so straight?